pater definition | Dictionary.com

pa⋅ter

[pey-ter; also, for 2, 3 pat-er]

–noun

1.	British Informal. father.

2.	(often initial capital letter) the paternoster; Lord's Prayer.

3.	a recitation of it.

Origin:
1300–50; ME < L: father

[pey-ter]

–noun

Walter Horatio, 1839–94, English critic, essayist, and novelist.

2 [pat]

–adjective

1.	exactly to the point or purpose; apt; opportune: a pat solution to a problem.

2.	excessively glib; unconvincingly facile: His answers were too pat to suit the examining board.

3.	learned, known, or mastered perfectly or exactly: to have something pat.

–adverb

4.	exactly or perfectly.

5.	aptly; opportunely.

—Idioms

6.	down pat. down ¹ (def. 49).

stand pat,

a.	to cling or hold firm to one's decision, policy, or beliefs: The government must stand pat in its policy.

b.	Poker. to play a hand as dealt, without drawing other cards.

Origin:
1570–80; orig. adverbial use of pat ¹ , as obs. to hit pat to strike accurately

Related forms:

patness, noun

patter, noun

Link To pater

pa·ter (pā'tər)

n. Chiefly British
Father.

[Latin; see pəter- in Indo-European roots.]

Pa·ter (pā'tər)

British writer remembered for his volumes of criticism, including Appreciations (1889).

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